Thursday, March 7, 2013

The water turtles have this awesome ability to shut down their systems during the winter months so they can stay underwater without needing to come up for air or food. Sometimes if it get unseasonably warm they might come up to catch some sun rays but they go back down. We can always tell when the warm spring weather is here to stay because they come up and they are HUNGRY.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Poor Betty, when our storm hit 2 days ago, everyone around us got snow. We got a thunderstorm, that seemed to be right above our house. Betty was so freaked out, I think she was caught off guard, because it has been so long since we've had a thunderstorm.

Thursday, February 21, 2013

Yep, you read that right. We got SNOW, okay we didn't really get it at our house but.....Amy got it at her house and areas all around us got it.
Really Look

This is at Amy's house 10 minutes from our house

This is the Superstition Mountains about 20 miles from our house

This is a picture of the highway about 20 miles the other direction

Car I passed yesterday afternoon on the highway

Okay so most of you are probably not really impressed by our snow, but you gotta remember we live in the desert so this awesome for us. The boys were really glad they had their new Ruff Wear Jackets today to keep the warm.

Monday, February 18, 2013

Pete has been talking about our newly paved canal path for a while now. I finally got to see it this weekend while walking the boys ( I walked the girls a different direction) WOW it is fantastic, it is so much nicer now. It is now paved for about 8 miles now. They have put in stop lights at the major crossing which is awesome for Pete who bikes this path to work everyday.

Before

After

It is just beautiful now, I look forward to taking a bike ride down it some day soon.

Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Tuesday, February 12, 2013

I hope you don't mind i'm gonna share Emme's story today. It's about a dog that we got into the rescue. Emme was an owner surrender. When she came she had to be sedated, as she wouldn't let anybody near her. She was very protective of her owner, so much so that the owner stated she couldn't even take her to the vet. Emme is 1 1/2 yr old English Mastiff.

Emme's first day

Emme is such a beautiful dog. Her first day with us was one of the days I go down and get the dogs out. I sat on the outside of her kennel for 2 hours. All she did was bark at me. After talking with our volunteer coordinator. We decide I would try to work with her to get her to a point where we could get her out. I spent the next 2 days trying to get her to trust me. I brought her a cheeseburger a day and just sat 2hours each day just talking to her, finally I was able to get in her kennel with her.

I'm sitting on a stool in her kennel

Then she let me pet her twice while I was sitting in her kennel with her. Then on the fifth day I took another volunteer Debbie with me and after 4 hours with her, finally we were able to get her out in the yard.

At first she was so scared and the first time out she only came to me. but then on the 6th day

She went to Debbie and even let me leave the yard, and leave her with Debbie

I took Amy with on Saturday and she loved running with Amy, slowly she came out of her shell.

Lea one of the staff members at the kennel was able to get her out with out me there. This is real progress for this girl. We decided she was ready to be moved to a different facility where she could interact with more people. So we moved her on a Thursday. On Saturday she let another volunteer walk her out in the desert. She is still scared but, she is getting better. We had an adoption event this weekend and a family came up and asked about her. Of course she is not up for adoption yet, as she still needs work, however they wanted to see her, said they could wait for her.

I am happy to say they came and saw her. They have decided they want her and are going to start coming to visit her, to help her get ready. This girl has come so far from when she first got here. I am so happy for her.
She is such a Good Girl

Thursday, February 7, 2013

I thought I'd show off one of Christopher's Christmas presents. It was prefect for him. You know he's in Afghanistan and he did not want us to send him anything really, just because of where he's at, he thought it would just be easier. So one day after I mailed this to him (he got other things also). I asked him "Are you sure you don't want me to send you anything" And he replied " Well are you sending me a huge picture of the smelves" ( Elvis' nickname) of course I played it off.

Elvis a Good Boy

I got it right don't you think. It's a huge blanket, probably the softest blanket ever. And I it ordered from of all places Walmart, and it was a great price. I tried to order it from other companies but they would not do it because the picture was taken from a phone and not the best quality, although we think it's a great picture. It's a really great blanket.